The 80-20 Rule: How to Use Less to Be More Effective

The 80-20 rule can be applied to every aspect of your life, yet it is widely forgotten by many. This is an old principle which says that from 20% of the causes you get 80% of the results. For example, you wear 20% of your clothes 80% of your time, you go out 80% of your time with 20% of your friends, you get 80% of income from 20% of the income generating sources.

The 80-20 rule can be applied everywhere, no matter what subject you pick. For example, there are around 20% of people that cause 80% of your frustration; There are 20% of activities that give you 80% of pleasure.

This 80/20 ratio is just a general guideline, it is not always exact. Sometimes 90/10 or even 99/1 can be found. It could be that 1%of your business actions cause 99% of your income. Another example could be that 5% of your daily activities cause 95% of your happiness.

When you really get this law you can make your life so much easier. With such knowledge you can ruthlessly go through all your daily activities, eliminate most inefficient ones and leave only value producing activities.

When I went through my daily activities, I was astonished to find out that 90% of my time was spent on things which gave me “little” or no result. Boy! I was shocked to know that. Ever since I decided to apply this principle my focus and life has been just great.

Now you may ask why the 80-20 rule exists. This is because we are habitual beings. We get into the habit of certain activities, go to certain places and see certain people. Other activities or things fall off as a result. But this may not explain the financial situation of the world. Why around 90% of allworld’s money rests in 10% of the super rich hands? Could this be explained as habitual? I would certainly think so. Here’s how I view it.
As the masses have old habits so the world’s wealthiest people are uncommon thinkers. Both are habits. The masses are driven by the habits formed in past generations, whereas the wealthy form new habits (except when they are born into rich families that had those habits before). So the masses are poor because of their poor habits and the wealthy are well-off because of their good habits. I hope you get my philosophy behind the 80-20 rule.

With the knowledge of this rule, you could apply it to get rid of the things that bother you. Honestly ask yourself these questions:

Which 20% of causes result in 80% of my unhappiness?

Which 20% of daily activities consume 80% of my time?

Which 20% of people cause 80% of my frustration?

When you identify 20% of causes to 80% of your unhappiness, eliminate them as soon as you can. Also, if you find that some activities are unproductive, yet you waste most of your time on them, eliminate them too.
The result? Less clustered, happier and more productive life.

What do you think of this rule, what other ways do you think it could be applied?

This is awesome, sort of a minimalistic strategy to manage your time far more effectively. I think everyone has so much unneeded clutter in their lives that needs sorted through from time to time, and I think the 80-20 rule is totally applicable in all our lives. Thanks for sharing!https://jakejournal.wordpress.com

This 80-20 rule can change lives. I think everyone just gets into unwanted things in life sometimes and that leads to unhappiness. By following this rule they can identify those flaws which keeps them away from happiness. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

It’s almost like detoxing your life! Removing all the toxic and unproductive things that do you no good and drag you down, while keeping the positive things that help you move forward. Great post and will be using the 80-20 rule.

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